Alfred Victor Smith was born in Guildford, Surrey, on 22 July 1891, the only son of William Henry Smith and Louisa (née Green). His father had served seven years in the 11th Hussars, taking part in the Gordon Relief Expedition of 1884–5, before joining the Police Force, in which he rose to the rank of chief constable of St Albans, in Hertfordshire. Victor Smith (his first christian name appears to have been rarely used) was educated at Hatfield Road School, St Albans. He possessed a fine singing voice and was a chorister and tenor soloist at St Albans Cathedral before the family moved to Burnley, Lancashire in 1905, on his father’s appointment as chief constable of the northern town. Continuing his education at Burnley Grammar School, Victor became a Sunday School worker. He left school aged eighteen and spent eighteen months working at the town’s new Labour Bureau before deciding to join the police.
Victor Smith became a member of the Blackpool force, whose chief constable was a friend of his father. Promotion quickly followed. From acting-inspector, he became an inspector, working in the weights and measures department. Miss Winifred Pringle, daughter of Blackpool’s chief constable, recalled: ‘Victor was a fresh-faced, good-living young man. He was a kindly chap and so full of fun, and popular with the men.’ She remembered him working in the weights and measures office:
I can see him now with his sleeves rolled up and laughing. He used to ladle out molten lead and splash it onto the stone-flagged floor and it made funny shapes. He did it to amuse me and the other children. My father said that Victor was very bright and would certainly have had a fine police career.
His noted singing voice made him a popular performer in local operatic societies and concerts. He was also a keen swimmer and gymnast and, with other policemen, a member of the seaside resort’s fire brigade and life-saving squad. During a royal visit to Blackpool, the young police inspector, noted for his ‘exceptional smartness and ability’, served as his chief constable’s orderly. His future success seemed assured. Then came the war.
Victor Smith was one of the first to volunteer for active service. On 10 October 1914 he was gazetted as second lieutenant to the 2/5th East Lancashire Regiment. He served at the Burnley depot and at Southport before volunteering, with four more officers, to join a reinforcements draft for the 1/5th East Lancashires, then in Egypt. He arrived in Port Said on 11 April 1915, and after a course in Cairo he joined the battalion on 4 May. Four days later, the unit sailed as part of the 42nd East Lancashire Division for Gallipoli, going ashore at Cape Helles on 13 May. Together with several other officers from the newly arrived division, Smith was attached to a unit of the 29th Division as a means of gaining combat experience and filling gaps. During his early days on the peninsula, he saw fighting with the Royal Munster Fusiliers and the King’s Own Scottish Borderers.
At the end of July he was evacuated to Alexandria, suffering from a bout of dysentery. A spell of convalescence followed in Cyprus before he sailed for Mudros, where he underwent a course in bombing, a form of warfare still new to many of the troops on the peninsula. Gaining first-class passes, he was appointed brigade bombing officer, a post which took him back to his unit at Cape Helles. There, his popularity and optimism in the face of great adversity helped lift morale. Years afterwards, one veteran would remember him leading them in a ‘sing-song’ on Gully Beach after coming out of the line.
Throughout the fighting and the harsh autumn weather, Smith’s own morale appears never to have flagged. At a time when most men’s thoughts were turning to evacuation, he was to be found risking his life on patrols and bombing operations. It was little wonder that he was held in such awe by his men. Ingham Ridehalgh, his bombing sergeant and himself a veteran of Omdurman, said of him: ‘I, or any of the men, would have followed “Vic” anywhere. He was like one of us, and a better officer I never saw.’
The telegram announcing Victor Smith’s death arrived at his parents’ home in Burnley less than two hours after his postcard wishing them a happy Christmas. Almost a year to the day after their son’s final gallant gesture, William and Louisa Smith went to Buckingham Palace to receive the Victoria Cross. A few days before, a portrait of the young VC winner by the artist John Cooke was unveiled amid much civic pomp in Burnley. Today the painting is still displayed in the Towneley Hall Museum, together with his VC and Croix de Guerre, posthumously awarded by the President of France. Other memorials to the Gallipoli Campaign’s last VC can be found in St Albans Cathedral, St Catherine’s Church, Burnley, and St John’s Parish Church, Blackpool. The magnificent bronze tablet on the wall of St John’s Church features a likeness of Victor Smith, between impressions of his two gallantry awards, with the inscription, which serves as a fitting epitaph:
In Remembrance
Of a gallant soldier one in
heart and ever loyal to duty
A VICTOR SMITH VC
Lieutenant 5th Batt East Lancashire
Regiment, Inspector of the Blackpool
Police, this memorial is dedicated
Less than 25 years but crowned with
the love than which no Man hath greater
in the words of his commanding officer
HE GAVE HIS LIFE TO SAVE OTHERS
at
Fusilier Bluff Gallipoli Peninsula
December 23rd, 1915
By throwing himself upon a live
grenade and was awarded the
Victoria Cross and the Croix de Guerre
for this magnificent act of self
sacrifice which saved many lives.
SOURCES
The sources used in the preparation of this book include the following:
The Lummis VC files at the National Army Museum, London
The Victoria Cross files at the Imperial War Museum, London
The Public Record Office, Kew, Surrey
Regimental Museums and Archives
The London Gazette 1914–20 (HMSO)
E.G. Robinson
Dardanelles Details, Naval Review 24, Capt. B.H. Smith, 1936
Dardanelles Dilemma, E.K. Chatterton, Rich & Cowan, 1935
Britain’s Sea Soldiers, A History of the Royal Marines, 1914–1919, Gen. Sir H.E. Blumberg
Operations in the Dardanelles, Reports on Minesweeping, (PRO)
The Times
C. Bromley, R.R. Willis, A.J. Richards, F.E. Stubbs, J.E. Grimshaw and W. Kenealy
The Landing of the 89th Infantry Brigade, H.M. Farmar, Sackville Press, n.d.
With the 29th Division in Gallipoli, Revd O. Creighton, Longmans, Green & Co., 1916
The History of the Lancashire Fusiliers, 1914–1918, J.C. Latter, Gale & Polden, 1949
The Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual
Gallipoli Gazette
Lancashire HQ, Royal Regt of Fusiliers
‘The Landing in Gallipoli’, Maj. R.R. Willis VC, Gallipoli Gazette, July 1934
Memoir and documents relating to Sgt. A.J. Richards VC (IWM)
War Diary, 1st Bn Lancashire Fusiliers (PRO)
The Gallipolian
Wigan Observer
Wigan Examiner
Hull Times
The Daily Mail
St Paul’s School, Barnes
E. Unwin, G.L. Drewry, W. St A. Malleson, A.W. St C. Tisdall, W.C. Williams and G.McK. Samson
Case of Sub-Lt. A.W. St Clair Tisdall, RNVR (PRO)
Verses, Letters and Remembrances of Arthur Walderne St Clair Tisdall VC, Sub-Lieutenant RNVR, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1916
At Antwerp and the Dardanelles, Revd H.C. Foster, Mills & Boon, 1918
Capt. E. Unwin VC, letters (Capt. H.C. Lockyer collection, IWM)
Eye-witness accounts of Unwin VC action (PRO)
H. St A. Malleson
J. McWilliam (daughter of W. St A. Malleson VC)
J.P. Macintyre
The First World War Letters of Lieut G.L. Drewry VC (IWM)
The Immortal Gamble, A.T. Stewart and Revd C.J.E. Peshall, A & C Black Ltd, 1917
Chepstow Museum
Carnousti
e Library
Asbourne Telegraph
South Wales Argus
The Times
C.H.M. Doughty-Wylie and G.N. Walford
Doughty-Wylie Papers, The Regimental Museum, Royal Welch Fusiliers
Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, Vol. 4, D. Ward, 1928
Lt. Col. G.B. Stoney DSO, (ms, letters, IWM)
The Landing at V Beach, Gallipoli, Lt. Col. H.E. Tizard (ts, IWM)
L.O. Doughty-Wylie (letters, diary, IWM)
Dictionary of National Biography, 1912–1921
Harrow School archives
Gallipoli 1915, P. Liddle, Brasseys, 1985
W. Cosgrove
War Diary, 1st Bn Royal Munster Fusiliers (PRO)
The Irish at the Front, M. MacDonagh, Hodder & Stoughton, 1916
Cork Examiner
Cork Holly Bough
The Rangoon Gazette
W.R. Parker
Case of Lance-Corporal W.R. Parker, RMLI (PRO)
The Royal Marines Victoria Crosses, M.G. Little, Royal Marines Museum, n.d.
Britain’s Sea Soldiers, A History of the Royal Marines, 1914–1919, Gen. Sir H.E. Blumberg, Swiss & Company, 1929
Royal Marines Museum
V.C. de Ville (daughter)
Nottingham Evening Post
Nottinghamshire Guardian
E.C. Boyle
Report of Proceedings of Submarine E14, April 27–May 18, 1915 (RN Submarine Museum)
Diary of Ldg Seaman J.T. Haskins, DSM (IWM)
Passage of the Dardanelles by E14, E.G. Stanley, DSC (RN Submarine Museum)
By Guess and By God, W.G. Carr, Hutchinson, 1930
M.E. Nasmith
Some Recollections of Submarine Work in the Sea of Marmora in 1915, M.E. Nasmith (IWM)
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Dardanelles Patrol, P. Shankland and A. Hunter, Collins, 1964
A. Jacka
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Australian Dictionary of Biography
The History of the 14th Battalion, AIF, N. Wanliss, Arrow Printery, 1929
Jacka VC: Australian Hero, R. Macklin, Allen & Unwin, 2006
Jacka’s Mob, E.J. Rule, Angus & Robertson, 1933
G.R.D. Moor
War Diary, 2nd Bn, The Hampshire Regt (PRO)
RHQ, Royal Hampshire Regt
History of the Royal Hampshire Regt, Vol II, C.T. Atkinson, Gale & Polden, 1950
Regimental Journal
Playing With Strife, Lt. Gen. Sir Philip Neame VC, KBE, CB, DSO, Harrap, 1947
North Devon Journal
Braunton Museum
The Cheltenham Society
H. James
Regimental HQ, Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regt
The Worcestershire Regiment in the Great War, Capt. H. FitzM. Stacke, G.T. Cheshire & Sons, n.d.
War Diary, 4th Bn Worcestershire Regt (PRO)
Letters to the Official Historian (PRO)
The Firm (Regimental Journal)
The Royal Scots 1914–1919, Maj. J. Ewing, Oliver & Boyd, 1925
Birmingham Post
Birmingham Mail
Birmingham Gazette
A.H. James (correspondence)
G.R. O’Sullivan, J. Somers
Regimental Office, Royal Irish Rangers
The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in the World War, Sir Frank Fox, Constable, 1928
War Diary, 1st Bn Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (PRO)
Letters to the Official Historian (PRO)
Wimbledon College
The Guardian, Cloughjordan
The Tipperary Star
The Anglo-Celt Cavan
P.H. Hansen
Eton College
Royal Lincolnshire Regt. Museum
News of the World
Public Record Office
History of the Lincolnshire Regt, 1914–1919, Maj.-Gen. C.R. Simpson, Medici Society, 1931
Diary and papers of Sgt. H.J. Gibbons (IWM)
The Lincolnshire Chronicle
W.T. Forshaw
War Diary, 1/9th Bn Manchester Regt. (PRO)
The 42nd (East Lancashire) Division 1914–1918, F. Gibbon, Country Life Library, 1920
Museum of the Manchesters, Ashton-under-Lyne
Tameside Local Studies Library, Stalybridge
Furness Museum, Barrow-in-Furness
The Barrovian
The Morning Post
The Ashton Reporter
D.R. Lauder
RHQ, The Royal Highland Fusiliers
War Diary, 1/4th Bn, Royal Scots Fusiliers (PRO)
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T.R. Lauder, V. Lauder
The 52nd (Lowland) Division 1914–1918, Lt. Col. R.R. Thompson, MC, MacLehose, Jackson & Co., 1923
Glasgow Herald
Glasgow Evening News
Sunday Mail
F.H. Tubb, A.J. Shout, W.J. Symons, W. Dunstan, A.S. Burton, L.M. Keysor and J. Hamilton
Diary of Frederick H. Tubb VC (via H. Murray Hamilton)
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No Brains At All, K. Dunstan, Viking, 1990
Australian Dictionary of Biography
Ballarat Courier
Bendigo Advertiser
Canberra Times
Euroa Gazette
The Age
Melbourne Herald
Melbourne Argus
Melbourne Sun
Reveille
Mufti
C.R.G. Bassett
Taped interview with C.R.G. Bassett VC (Liddle Collection, Leeds University)
Where the Prize is Highest, G. Bryant, Collins, 1972
New Zealand VC Winners, J. Sanders
The New Zealanders at Gallipoli, F. Waite, Whitcombe & Tombs, 1921
Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story, C.J. Pugsley, 1984
New Zealand Herald
F.W.O. Potts
The Gallipolian
The London Magazine
I Was There, Vol. 1, 1914–16, Amalgamated Press, 1938
The Reading Standard
The Reading Observer
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H.V.H. Throssell
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Westralian Cavalry in the War, A.C.N. Olden, Alexander McCubbin, n.d.
Australian Dictionary of Biography
The West Australian
R. Bell Davies
Flying Logbook of R. Bell Davies VC, DSO (Fleet Air Arm Museum)
Sailor in the Air, Vice-Admiral R. Bell Davies VC, CB, DSO, AFC, Peter Davies, 1967
Fights and Flights, Air Commodore C.R. Samson CMG, DSO, AFC, Ernest Benn, 1930
For Valour: The Air VCs, C. Bowyer, Grub Street Aviation Classics, 1992
RNAS Wing War Diary (PRO)
A.V. Smith
The 42nd East Lancashire Division 1914–1918, F. Gibbon, Country Life Library, 1920
War Diary, 1/5th Bn East Lancashire Regt (PRO)
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Burnley Express and Advertiser
Burnley News
Blackpool Times
West Lancashire Evening Gazette
Hertfordshire and the War, n.d.
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>
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PLATES
Robinson in action
‘Six VCs Before Breakfast’. An artist’s impression of W Beach landing, showing Capt. Willis, centre, with his walking stick
Cpl. J.E. Grimshaw Sgt. F.E. Stubbs Capt. C. Bromley
VCs of the First World War Gallipoli Page 32
